Positive and Negative Cutout Craft

See both sides of the picture with this fun positive and negative cutout craft. You'll never run out of ideas and you'll want to do this project again and again.

What You'll Need:

  • Construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Ruler
How to Make the Positive and Negative Cutout:

Step 1: Cut a 4x4-inch square from construction paper. Cut a shape into each side, saving the cut-out pieces.

Step 2: Place the cut square and the cutouts on another piece of brightly colored construction paper. Arrange the cutouts in a mirror image of the square's side shapes.

Step 3: After you've positioned the pieces, glue your design to the construction paper background.

Illustration of a postive and negative cutout paper craft
©2007 Publications International, Inc.
A finished positive and negative cutout.

Experiment with all kinds of shapes. You can even glue small cutouts in the center of bigger ones. Or you can tear out the pieces instead of using scissors to cut them. After you've created several cutouts, make them into a collage or frame the finished pieces.

Do You Know?
For each positive number, there exists a negative number that is its opposite. For example, the opposite of 12 is -12. When you add any number to its opposite, the answer is always 0, but did you know that 0 is not a positive OR a negative number -- it's just 0!

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